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This Year's Burning Man To Feature Massive Tribute to the Nova Festival Victims and Their Spirit
September 2024
By Jacob Gurvis
August 23 (JTA) At 6:29 a.m. on Oct. 7, the Supernova music festival in Israel came to a screeching halt as Hamas terrorists attacked, killing roughly 400 attendees, taking dozens of hostages and launching a bloody massacre across southern Israel.
Next month, attendees of another desert festival for free-spirited music lovers plan to pause one day at 6:29 a.m. to honor the Nova victims and their memory.
This year’s Burning Man, the festival that draws 70,000 people annually to Nevada’s Black Rock Desert, will feature an installation and events that aim to bring to life the Nova community’s rallying cry: “We will dance again.”
Burning Man begins Sunday and runs through Sept. 2. Already, members of the “Nova Heaven” team, in addition to planning the early morning commemoration, have begun constructing elements of an installation that is to feature a replica of the multi-colored tent that stood at the heart of the Nova festival and has since appeared in the Nova exhibit that has been on display in Tel Aviv, New York and now Los Angeles.
Nova Heaven will also feature a large gate-shaped art piece with the “We Will Dance Again” motto, along with 405 laser-cut angels to represent the Nova victims and a spiral staircase with 100 English and Hebrew messages including “love conquers all” and “compassion unites us.”
Organizers have arranged for several of Burning Man’s famous “art cars,” including a fire-breathing dragon and an illuminated zeppelin, to swing by their home base on the desert landscape, known among aficionados as “the Playa.” They have also set up a series of events framed around the motif of angels and “dancing again,” including sets from Israeli DJs, music from handpan musician Noah Katz and “healing sound experiences,” such as a gong performance from David Shemesh.
Nova Heaven’s organizers include producers of the original Israeli music festival; leaders of the Tribe of Nova Foundation set up to support survivors and spread their message, and longtime “Burners” who understand the power of the desert experience.
“To us, ‘Nova Heaven’ is a testament to the resilience of the human spirit in the face of profound loss,” the organizers wrote on a GoFundMe page where they have raised nearly $100,000 toward a projected bill of $130,000.
“It is a space where participants can connect with memories of those lost, find solace, and draw strength from shared experiences,” they wrote. “This installation is a message of hope and resilience, reminding us all that the human spirit can prevail even in the darkest times.”
The installation’s presence at Burning Man is notable because survivors of the Nova massacre, which some compared to the Holocaust, have expressed frustration that the global trance scene has not more forcefully denounced what happened in Israel.
The group appears to have taken steps to prevent any vandalism or protest of the type that has taken place against some Israelis in the United States since Oct. 7 and the ensuing war in Gaza. The group says it has recruited dozens of “Guardians” who watch over the installation in six-hour shifts around the clock to “ensure meaningful connections are made to the art piece.”
Some of the artists participating in the build — Burning Man famously requires participants to pack in and remove all elements of their installations — have ties to the Israeli trance scene.
Shahar Peter, who created the phrases for the staircase piece, for example, was born and raised in Sderot, which was attacked on Oct. 7, and himself was attending a different nature festival in the region on Oct. 7.
Peter has previously attended Burning Man, as have many of the people who are participating in the Nova Heaven installation. The festival has long hosted varieties of ecstatic Jewish experience, including Shabbat services.
“For those who know me, you know how deeply Burning Man is woven into my life. It’s where I married my love, where I was pregnant with my first daughter, and this will be my seventh time returning to the Playa. Burning Man is a part of me,” Tal Navarro, the group’s fundraising chair, posted on Instagram. “But this time, it’s more than that. This time, the Burn is a part of all of us.”
